Thursday, April 30, 2009

President Barack Obama pledged "great vigilance" in dealing with the situation as the total confirmed cases in the U.S. rose to nearly 100, with many more suspected.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization sounded its own ominous alarm, raising its alert level to one notch below a full-fledged global pandemic. Said WHO Director General Margaret Chan: "It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic."

Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there were confirmed cases in 10 states, including 51 in New York, 16 in Texas and 14 in California. The CDC also counted scattered cases in Kansas, Massachusetts , Michigan, Arizona, Indiana, Nevada and Ohio.

Should Swine Flu be a concern for health organizations around the world? YES. Should we do our best to inform ourselves of necessary precautions. YES. But should we also ignore the fear mongering media coverage realizing the problem is so far VERY small? YES.

How small? Well, in the five days that the disease 'Swine Flu' became integrated into day to day conversation, about 100 people (in a nation of ~300,000,000) have been diagnosed with having the disease and only 1 has died (a child who contracted the disease in Mexico).

How does this compare to the estimated number of actual deaths caused by murder in the U.S., which hopefully doesn't cross anyone's mind on a daily basis?

Lets just say 12x more people were murdered by hand or foot than by "swine" over that time frame...